Page 7 of Sinful as They Come
I didn’t have a damn thing on me that day besides the single notebook I would have to use for the rest of the semester. One notebook, too many classes. When you’re poor you’re forced to be economical. And creative.
My usual plan for the start of the school year was to borrow pens from people and never give them back. Most people had no problem letting their pens go. And I remembered thinking that Holly seemed like the kind of person who had a lot of them.
I had tapped her on the shoulder, she had turned around with a smile, and then I asked her for the pen like I did every other year. But Carter…Fucking Carter. Unlike Holly, me and Carter had history at that point. We’dalways get into fights. We still did.
“Don’t even think about giving him a thing,” Carter had snapped at me. “Trailer Park Trashsteals. He doesn’t borrow.”
He was right. I did steal. But it was that stupid nickname he loved to call me that pissed me off. I still remembered the look in Holly’s eyes. She had frowned at Carter for a second before eyeing me. She saw the old clothes and tussled hair. She saw acriminal. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks that had no right talking to someone like her.
I had looked at her intensely in that moment. My green eyes met her brown ones. Was she gonna say anything? She didn’t know me. I didn’t know her. She could have told Carter to get fucked. Could have given me the goddamn pen and moved on. But she didn’t. Her hand retreated, she turned back around, and she avoided my gaze like I wasn’t good enough to even be around her.
It would have been petty to hate her because of a pen. And I didn’t. I didn’t hate her because she didn’t hand over a flimsy piece of plastic. What pissed me off was how she sat there watching while Carter said that shit to me without batting an eye. She did that because she thought she was better than me. Just like everyone else did.
Again – that wasn’t even what made me hate her. I didn’t evendislikeher at that point. That was the beginning, though. Because from that point on, she sat back and watched while pretty boy Carter and his dumb ass friends criticized every last thing about me.
My clothes, my hair, my house – fuckin’ trailer, whatever you wanted to call it. Nothing was off limits. Carter knew I was poor. Everyone did. Including Holly. It was a dirty word for some people, but that was what I was. I was the bad kid from the wrong side of the tracks. The tracks girls like Holly were never meant to cross.
Most people didn’t seem to give a fuck where I came from. But Carter? He had made it a habit to bring up my lack of wealth every. Single. Day. We’d fight. I’d kick his ass. He’d leave bleeding and he’d come back for more. Holly would always scold me, and I’d tell her to mind her own fucking business. She slowly got dragged into my rivalry with Carter, but she wasalways fuckin’ hanging around him, anyway. It was only natural for me to start saying shit to her. She’d stick up for herself and I’d say shit back. And then it just escalated from there.
Did Holly ever, even once, show me she was a good person by telling Carter to shut his big fuckin’ mouth? No. She sat back and watched. God, she started dating him about a year ago. Apparently she liked rich, stuck up assholes. She knew what he was like. He showed her his true colors.
But she still fucking fell for him. And if she was in love with Carter Henderson, there was no way you’d ever get on my good side.
She stood for everything I wasn’t. Wealthy. Perfect. Popular. She lived on the other side of town. Rich kid territory. I was way, way, way on the other side. The side she knew existed but had no reason to go to. Because I was bad news. I was a criminal. I was dangerous, I was trailer park trash.
I shook my head and put my cigarette out.
Brodie was insane for thinking I could ever want Holly like that.
Chapter 3
HOLLy
“So, you’re happy to be reporting all the school’s sports events?” I clasped my hands together and stared up at Brodie with big eyes. I just wanted to make sure – because he didn’t seem to be the type that was into sports. “It’ll mostly be football if that’s okay.”
“I mean, I’m more of a hockey guy. But I can handle some football.” Brodie nodded.
I sighed happily. “Brodie, you’re a lifesaver. Our old sports writer left for college this year, so we really needed someone to fill her boots.”
“I gotcha. When’s the first game?”
“This Friday. I should see you there. Carter’s playing, which is super exciting. It’ll be a fun night. You’ll get to see a good game of football and talk to all the guys after the game. You know, get in the locker room and go behind the scenes.”
“That sounds like a nightmare, actually.” He grinned. “But I’ll do it. I really need this on my resume. Your boy needs to get outta here.”
“You know, you and Sawyer are so different.” I shook my head. “You seem… determined. Smart. You’re funny. And Sawyer is so… What’s the word?”
“He’s an asshole.”
I laughed softly. “I was gonna say vulgar and rude and consistently impolite. But yeah. That word too.”
“Sawyer’s not so bad once you get to know him.”
Clearing my throat, I gave him a look. “I’ve known him long enough to know that he likes to use all of his spare time coming up with new ways to annoy me.”
“He just… He’s got his issues.”
“You mean me?”
